Ambali most sought -after drink

 A road side juice centre sell Jonna Ambali at Luxettipet 

The delicious Jonna Ambali (gruel made of grinded jowar) is competing with fruit juice this summer.

Fruit juice vendors are now offering ‘Jonna Ambali’ along with the fruit juice in towns which keep the body cool in the hot summer and gives energy. Jonna Ambali is famous and delicious food item even today in the rural areas of the Telangana.

Rural folk take Jonna Ambali with Chatni and curd before going to agriculture fields and after returning to home.

Telangana agitators offered the Jonna Ambali to the new generation to make the item popular and Jonna Ambali got boost with the exhibitions of Telangana dishes.

The importance and the role of the gruel centres played in saving the lives of the people during the severe drought that hit the united Andhra Pradesh during 1984-85 was reported in the book ‘The State and Repressive Culture: the Andhra  Experience’ written by  social activist and writer Kancha Ilaiah and was published in 1989.

The Civil Society, Human Rights Groups and Left Parties had established these gruel centers in drought affected districts during that time. The Ambali is also a nutritious food and it gives energy to the starving people.

Taking Jonna Ambali has become a fashion too these days due to its nutritional value. People especially diabetics are taking Jawa of Ragi, Jonna, Sajjalu, Ulavalu after grinding on the instruction of doctors.

Dashrath Jangil of Ichoda said, ‘people used to take gruel (Ambali) made of local variety ‘Pedda Jonnalu’ which are sown in June or July and gets crop by January or February ‘and added that this local variety used to keep the body cool during summer and now these local variety disappeared and replaced with hybrid variety.